He uses consonance - the repetition of the same consonant in short succession - through words with the letter “f”: battlefield field final for fitting.īut, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground.Moving back and forth between the contradictory poles encourages full engagement from the audience.” Communicating an idea juxtaposed with its polar opposite creates energy. By stating “those who here gave their lives that this nation might live” Lincoln makes what is perhaps the ultimate contrast: life vs death. Lincoln turns to recognize those who have fallen for their country.It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. Thus does the war - and the importance of winning it - take on an even greater significance. It is a question of whether any nation founded on the same principles could survive. He extends the significance of the fight beyond the borders of the United States.Here, Lincoln signals the challenge: the nation is under attack.Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. In so doing, he sets up his next sentence perfectly. Lincoln reminds the audience of the founding principles of the country: liberty and equality.The United States had won its freedom from Britain 87 years earlier, embarking on the “Great Experiment”. “Four score and seven” is much more poetic, much more elegant, much more noble than “Eighty-seven”.Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. However, Lincoln realized that he also had to inspire the people to continue the fight.īelow is the text of the Gettysburg Address, interspersed with my thoughts on what made it so memorable. The stated purpose of Lincoln’s speech was to dedicate a plot of land that would become Soldier’s National Cemetery. Union troops had only recently defeated Confederate troops at the Battle of Gettysburg. America was in the midst of a bloody civil war. First, it is important to remember the context.
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